Too much solder!

OilCityPickups

I mix solders regularly and it ain't hurt me none, huck huck huck... now how do you play dueling banjos again?

Sarge

TheGuitarWeasel;751842" said:

I mix solders regularly and it ain't hurt me none, huck huck huck... now how do you play dueling banjos again?

Left hand on the fretboard, right hand for the pickin' and yer middle hand is free to fiddle.

Gagaryn

I used to really struggle with soldering and it was all down to using a shit iron! I bought an Antex TCS 50w iron a few years ago with a few tips and it all became so much easier! The TCS at full heat with a 6mm bit has no problem melting any solder onto pot backs or other things that act as heat sinks, and does it very quickly so there is less chance of damaging anything.

hywelg

impmann said:

For the record, RoHS solder is fucking awful.

But hey we're stuck with it.

We're not. You might be at work, but we're not at work

If anyone want to know where to get 60Sn/40Pb solder I have 25kg+ in blowpipe form

Adam_MD

I use silver solder as well and find it just as easy to use as leaded.

CHrisP86

Some good advice/health and safety here.  Think I need a better iron so will have a look at the Antex ones.  Changing pickups and speakers is about as technical as I get so might as well get decent kit.

On a similar note, I usually manage to touch other wire(s) with the iron when I'm soldering.  Are slightly melted wire casings ok or should I replace them?

ICBM

CHrisP86 said:

On a similar note, I usually manage to touch other wire(s) with the iron when I'm soldering.  Are slightly melted wire casings ok or should I replace them?

As long as you don't expose the core or short a shielded cable, it's not a practical problem. If you start replacing wiring you'll only burn more of it .

It's not good though… you really need to try to avoid it. Work out where you need to hold the iron and move other wiring out the way if there isn't room.

And yes, I still do touch things I don't want to occasionally . It's annoying but 90% of the time it isn't worth fixing.

streethawk

Gagaryn said:

I used to really struggle with soldering and it was all down to using a shit iron! I bought an Antex TCS 50w iron a few years ago with a few tips and it all became so much easier! The TCS at full heat with a 6mm bit has no problem melting any solder onto pot backs or other things that act as heat sinks, and does it very quickly so there is less chance of damaging anything.

I've just bought a 6mm tip for my Antex TCS and it's a beast - slightly bigger than expected to be honest.  >:D<

Gagaryn

streethawk said:

Gagaryn said:

I used to really struggle with soldering and it was all down to using a shit iron! I bought an Antex TCS 50w iron a few years ago with a few tips and it all became so much easier! The TCS at full heat with a 6mm bit has no problem melting any solder onto pot backs or other things that act as heat sinks, and does it very quickly so there is less chance of damaging anything.

I've just bought a 6mm tip for my Antex TCS and it's a beast - slightly bigger than expected to be honest.  >:D<

Yeah - it's massive and holds a lot of heat which is exactly what you want. My thinking is better to use as much heat as you can for as short a period as you can as you have much less chance of damaging things. With my old iron Id have to hold the iron on to joints for ages before the solder would melt and by then everything else would be really hot - hot enough to melt insulation on cables and hot enough to damage components. 

Danny1969

A temperature controlled iron is a good bet because as soon as you make good contact with the pot a normal iron is losing heat via conduction, a temperature controlled iron senses this loss and increases power to combat the effect

I still can't see any good reason though for using vast amounts on solder on top of pots, there's no shielding advantage to it and all it does is stress the pot. If you need some kind of main bus all the earths can meet on then a basic turret screwed on it's on would be better  

ICBM

Danny1969 said:

I still can't see any good reason though for using vast amounts on solder on top of pots, there's no shielding advantage to it and all it does is stress the pot. If you need some kind of main bus all the earths can meet on then a basic turret screwed on it's on would be better  

Actually the best is the point on the volume pot casing right next to where the ground terminal is attached, because that's the reference point where the voltage that the amp sees is relative to, hence it gives the lowest noise. (Obviously only in guitars with a master volume pot.) You still don't need masses of solder though, there's often far too much.

Rhoadhouse_Music

This is precisely why I sell my solderless 5-way control plate setups: saves all this agonising... ;-)

FelineGuitars

Even my Antex XS25 iron copes well with pots if it has a large tip on it (think it's the Antex #52 tip). I dislike a lot of solder less systems .......EMGs were a lot easier to instal when they were soldered